Success Is A Journey, Not A Destination

Lately I have been connecting with as many people as I can on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, who I feel will motivate and inspire me to be better every day. As a blogger, freelance writer, and speaker – my path is not particularly traditional, so to speak.

Anyone who considers themselves an entrepreneur understands the struggles of setting out on your own into the open field of self-employment. The hard part about building your own brand(s) is that there are no hours to work. Nobody to motivate you. Nobody to give you tasks for the day. Just you, your vision, and the people who are kind enough to help you along the way.

What you do at 9:00 on a Friday night matters just as much as what you do at 8:00 on a Monday morning. It’s not a 9-5, it’s a 24/7, and it’s eat or be eaten.

80% of people probably quit. But to keep going, remember that they end up working for the other 20% who never did.

Regardless of your path, though – whether you are climbing the corporate ladder or sitting behind your laptop trying to figure out your next entrepreneurial move, the very nature of success is the same: It is a journey, it is not a destination.

And regardless of your path – you will face challenges.

Challenges in life are unavoidable – but the bright side is that overcoming them is what gives life meaning. It teaches us about ourselves. It helps us discover and develop new skills we didn’t know we had, or could have. Overcoming challenges increases our self confidence and gives us the momentum to keep moving forward.

Another challenge? Bring it on!

Giving up is robbing yourself. It is robbing yourself of not only the self-satisfaction, but the self-development that is achieved by facing and defeating these challenges. It is robbing yourself of the lessons that life is waiting to offer you. It is robbing yourself of becoming the person who will look back at the challenge which seems so glaring today, and saying “that wouldn’t be a problem if I was this person back then.”

There is going to be a day that you succeed, whatever that means to you. That day might be today. It might be tomorrow. It might be next week. But the fact of the matter is that if you quit, you will never know how close you were to finally getting over that hurdle. And even when you do consider yourself a success, it is only the beginning…

People who say they won’t rest until they succeed are completely missing the point of success…

It’s not some arbitrary destination where you can sit down on a bench and breathe the air of your newly-elevated residence. It’s an ongoing journey of personal and professional progression during which the reward is the path itself. There is no finish, no end goal, no button to press at the top of the mountain. You can always be, do, have, and give more – and that’s what makes it so beautiful.